Sunday Fun Day and Two Special Pups Turn Ten

I've spent some serious time this morning cleaning out my closet(s) and attempting to clear some space in them so I can actually see my clothes. I have waaaay too much stuff. And not because I shop a lot (although I do kind of shop a lot) but because I am so bad about parting with clothes. I always think I might still wear something, even if I haven't worn in in the past four years. But I did manage to fill up two large shopping bags full of clothes to donate. I sorted out the still nice/not so old/in good condition clothes from the very worn/faded/super out of date stuff, and I'm going to try my hand at some buy-back stores later today. If I walk away with 20 bucks in my pocket, I will be happy!

While I've been digging through closets, Mark did indeed start the retiling project this weekend. We (I mean HE) are ripping out the linoleum in the two bathrooms and laundry room, and today he is going to start laying the tile in the laundry room. So our washer and dryer are currently in the entry way to the house, so I guess I won't have to worry about laundry for a few days!

Today our two labs, Maggie and Jordan, turn TEN years old! We took them swimming at the lake early this morning (before it got TOO hot!), then Mark gave them both baths so they could be fresh and clean for their big day. Still on the agenda for this afternoon is a trip to Petsmart to pick out some new birthday toys, and I think I'll either make them some sort of dog friendly treat (oatmeal cookies?) or else just give them a big scoop of peanut butter tonight.

I don't have too many pictures on my computer right now, but here's a shot of the Birthday Girls and their two cousins (Finn and Stella the German Shepherds) earlier this summer. They are sitting up on hay bales at my parent's house! Happy Birthday Maggie and Jordan! You are seventy years old today. Old Ladies.

Cousin dogs!

Just for fun: Laura, Kristen and me in San Antonio a couple weeks ago.

Are you there Fall? It's me, Amanda

This weather has me itching for cold mornings and long jackets. It's almost 80 degrees outside, but the temperature drop and overcast day is enough of a tease to start surfing the web for new fall clothes.

We are going to visit Mark's brother in October and will spend a day in Durango, Colorado. I can't wait for the cooler climate and mountain views! While chatting about our fall wardrobe staples at work this morning, my coworkers turned me on to a new boot I have decided I MUST have for our trip: wellies!

Can't you just see me trekking through the mountains in a pair of these Hunter Wellies? Le sigh. Or, I can rock them Mary Kate style (or is this Ashley?) and run around town with my shades and fleece. It get's cold/wet enough in Dallas to justify a pair of these, right?

Kate, why do I love you so?

I'm on the quest for wedding dress shoes and, sadly, the only ones I am really liking are Kate Spade. I refuse to spend $300 on a pair of shoes I know I will likely wear only once (I just don't really need white heels). Where oh where can I get me some knockoff's or bargain Kates?!

sigh. double sigh.

e-pic Shopping

As you all know, I don't have much luck when it comes to finding a dress when I actually need one. So when Mark and I started planning our wardrobe for our engagement picture session this weekend, he let out a groan and said he wasn't going dress shopping with me this time. Ok. I'll admit it. I get a little particular when it comes to shopping for dresses for any occasion. What can I say? I know what I want and I won't stop until I find it (on sale, of course).

On Sunday, I called friend and Bridesmaid Stephanie to wish her a Happy Anniversary (she got married last October 18! Time flies!) and mentioned to her that we were taking e-pics at my parents' house this weekend and we had no idea what we were going to wear. We want a casual, country, we're-from-Texas feel to our pics, so we knew we were going to wear our cowboy boots, but not sure what to pair them with. Steph remembered a friend of hers who had great e-pics that fit our description and emailed them over to me.

Prepare to swoon.



How perfect is that? I pretty much want to recreate it to a T. Next up:



And now for the piece d'resistence. The most adorable Save the Date. Ever.



I simply had to do these poses with Mark and me, running through the fields of Muenster, chasing the cows in our boots with the sun gleaming down on us. So I set out for the mall this weekend, sans Mark, to find me a dress. Because surely I can find a white, summer, sundress in the middle of October, right?

Right! For once, the Shopping Gods shined down on me and there it was, sitting on the Clearance Rack at Macy's, in just my size. Marked down to $26.



I grabbed it and went straight to the register, where it rung up at $22. Score! It's not exactly like the dress in my e-pic inspiration, but I think the embroidery on the bottom and ruffle hem gives it the perfect country flair. Now all we need is a sunny day (And preferably a somewhat warm one. Come on Texas, I know you can do it, even at the end of October.)

Part 2

So are you all on pins and needles about my quest for the perfect dress? I had every intention of wrapping that one up quickly, but then life got in the way. It tends to do that! Just so we can move on to other topics, here is the abbreviated conclusion!

First a back-story. In 2007, I was attending a wedding of one of Mark's best friends. This was maybe the second or third time I had ever hung out with his college crowd, and I was more nervous than usual about the wedding and making sure all his friends liked me. I wanted a new dress to wear for it, so I started out on a hunt. My biggest problem was price - I realllly didn't want to spend more than about $50 on anything new, so I was looking for a good sale. As I searched and searched and couldn't find anything that fit in my budget, Mark started tagging along and offered to split the cost of a dress if it was too pricey. We found nothing. We must have gone to four different malls and it was zilch everywhere. I was getting discouraged and wanting to give up and just find something in my closet, but Mark made me forge on. Out of sheer desperation, we wandered into the BCBG section of Macy's. This was really a bad idea because let's face it, we didn't stand a chance of finding an inexpensive dress there!

I had been bypassing any dress that was over $100. Mark kept trying to get me to try them on, but I wouldn't even let him spend that much on me, so I refused to give them a chance. But by this point, after days of looking and countless stores, I humored him and tried on about three different dresses, all $200+. It was at this time that we found The. Perfect. Dress. It was navy blue with gold detailing and it was the perfect amount of both dressy and casual and it was just beautiful. They didn't even have my size, but I tried on one size smaller than I usually wear and was even able to zip it up. The sales lady assured me it fit perfectly and did her best to talk me into it. Yes, I loved it. Mark loved it. He said he would buy it. But at $250 i refused. He kept insisting that it was a great dress and totally worth the price and he didn't mind getting it for me. Now I'm all for letting him spoil me a little every now and then, but that just seemed absurd. I'm not the kind of gal that would ever spend that much on a dress. So we left it behind and I sulked about it quietly for a good month or so.

Ok, back to the current story. I'm searching for a dress for our party and the mall has failed me. I head up to McKinney after work with Mark one day and we stop at the outlets in Allen to see what they have. We park at JCrew and proceed to make our way around the entire shopping center (in the 100 degree heat no less!) and go into store after store after store. We give everything a chance. If it looks like it sells dresses, we go in. I think I tried on a total of three total and none are even remotely what I'm looking for. No one has summer dresses! We made our way down the last row of stores and Mark wanted to go into Brooks Brothers. It's then that I spotted the BCBG store, which I had forgotten was tucked away in the back corner of the mall. We went in, felling hopeful.

The store is arranged by color and we worked our way around, pulling more and more dresses from the racks for me to try on. This one's cute! And so is this one! I remarked how much I loved BCBG and Mark commented that he knew that because remember that one dress? I stopped mid rack as it came back to me. The perfect dress. I told him I was surprised he even remembered that dress, much less what brand it was! I even joked that maybe it had made its way to the outlets by now and that we should keep our eyes out for it. We worked our way around the store and finally made our way to the blue section. I sarcastically told Mark to look for it as I was sliding some dresses across the rack when Bam. There it was. The perfect dress. Navy with the gold details. Marked down significantly and - the entire store was an additional 50% off! And it was in my size! I grabbed it in disbelief and added it to the growing stack of dresses to try on.

I must have tried about 12 dresses and they were all fantastic. BCBG, how I love you. The navy dress was not at all what I was looking for for our party - it was much too fancy. But I found an adorable little strapless summer dress that couldn't be more perfect. I walked out of the dressing room with this dress and the navy one. I told Mark that I felt like God had put this dress back into my life and I was not going to walk away from it twice! So I bought them both. Or rather, Mark bought me the navy blue one after all, two years after we first found it in the mall.

So now, all this girl needs is some great shoes to wear with my new party dress! Whew!

Always There When You Don't Need It, Never Around When You Do

Ladies, I know you know all about this phenomenon/curse. It applies to all kinds of things - shoes, jewelry, books, jeans, bras, anything. For me, it is always the same thing. Dresses. If I am just strolling around the mall, perhaps looking for a gift or a new strapless bra or even tagging along with Mark while he shops for new work shirts, I will without a doubt find tons of cute dresses - sundresses, cocktail dresses, maxi dresses, formal dresses - and they will most likely be on sale for a decent price. Whenever I don't need them, have zero events planned that require a new dress or just plain can't justify spending the money, I am surrounded by many adorable little dresses. I'm not even seeking them out, I just find them. Sometimes I even try them on and ponder wistfully if I should buy them. There's always going to be something that comes up that needs a new dress, right? But, more often than not, if I don't have a reason or event or purpose for the dress, I just leave it and mentally remind myself to check that store the next time I need a new cute dress.

Well those days inevitably always come up, usually a lot quicker than you think they will. Weddings are the obvious events. I can always wear a dress in my closet to the many, many weddings I attend each year, but it's fun to get a new one every once in a while. Whenever I'm a bridesmaid (4 times so far, with 2 more on the calendar), I love to get a new dress for the rehearsal dinner, since it's my one chance during the weekend to wear my own sassy little number. Weddings are great excuses to buy yourself something new. So now that I'm the bride, I'm practically giddy with the idea of all the little splurges I get to make on myself this year.

Next month, my aunt and uncle are hosting an Engagement Party for Mark and me. We've invited everyone in our wedding party, as well as our closest friends and family. For the past couple weeks, once the invitations went out, I've been looking forward to shopping for a new dress to wear to the party. I've even been delaying it to an extent, because I didn't want to buy something too far before the party and then have the novelty of the new dress wear off before my big debut as the Bride to Be. But this past weekend, I could wait no longer. On the way home from the bridal show on Sunday, I stopped at the Galleria to hit up all my favorite spots: Nordstrom, JCrew, Zara, Banana, Macy's and any other stores that drew my attention. Well, I spent over two hours at the mall, going to EVERY SINGLE STORE and could find nothing. It's that weird time of year where, even though it's the middle of July and 105 degrees outside, all the stores are bringing in their fall sweaters. All the cute summer dresses were put on the clearance racks weeks ago with only slim pickings left. I grew more and more distraught as I left store after store without even a remote possibility of a winner.

That night I started to panic. What if there aren't any summer dresses out there anymore? I could wear one that's in my closet already, but that's no fun. And as the guest of honor (well, co-guest of honor) I wanted something really special. The party is a casual, backyard BBQ kind-of event (although we're serving Mexican and not BBQ) and we aren't expecting people to dress up (plus it will be August in Texas, still super hot!). I wanted a cute sundress or something short and summer-y. What if I couldn't find one?! I plotted to hit up all the little boutiques in town after work each afternoon, determined to leave no stone unturned.

Well fear not my friends. I did not only find the perfect dress, I found THREE perfect dresses. And I bought all three of them. Stay tuned.

Lengthy

About a month ago, Mark and I went up to his parents' house to spend the weekend with them. The purpose of our trip was an early Mother's Day celebration with his mom and a chance to hang out with them outside the hospital (since the last time we had seen them was when Mark's mom was in the ICU). Little did I know at the time, but another reason for the trip was for Mark to pick up my engagement ring from his parents, where he had it shipped.

I remember during our stay Mark and I were on the couch watching the Kentucky Derby and Danica Patrick was a guest commentator (beats me why?). Mark commented that he liked her hair and told me (for the umpteenth time) that I should grow my hair out long. I rolled my eyes. Boys don't get it. Long hair is such a pain. Takes forever to blow dry. Gets heavy and just hangs there. Makes you that much more hot in the summer. Takes up a lot of shampoo and conditioner. Sure Danica looked cute with her long dark locks hanging out from under her huge Derby hat, but I knew that wasn't a practical do for an everyday gal like me. So I gave him the answer I was so keen to using whenever I could - "I'll grow my hair out for my wedding. It's not currently on the calendar, so it's a no go for now."

Fast forward one week later and I had the ring on my finger. I am officially growing my hair out. With one year, one week and one day until the wedding (but who's counting?), I'm expecting some serious inches to be added on by the time I walk down the aisle. My hair has always grown pretty fast. Let's just see if I can put up with it for a year.

Parrotheads

This weekend we are going to the Jimmy Buffet concert. No big deal, right? Wrong. Apparently this is some sort of cultural phenom that swarms of people flock to every summer, spending entire weekends tailgating in anticipation of J.B.'s arrival. Mark has been telling me for months that I need to get my act together and purchase my outfit for this occasion and I keep assuring him that I'll find something in my closet to wear. Yesterday he really started to put the pressure on, telling me I should Google Image what people wear to the concerts and then keep my eyes out for a good outfit. So I looked it up online and saw a bunch of Hawaiian print shirts, grass skits and flowered leis. OK fine. I'll get something new to wear, but I want it to at least be something I can wear again. I found this shirt online, which I think is going to be the winner:

We are hitting up the mall tomorrow after work to make our official purchases, but I promise we won't end up looking like these folks, courtesy of Google.

When I mentioned to my coworker our plans for the weekend, she gasped and said "Oh. I cannot wait to hear what you thought about it next week." She went to a Buffet concert in college with her then underage boyfriend and said swears she will never go again. I'm thinking it will be fun though, but the official report will come some time next week. Stay tuned.